Battle for the Cursor - who's got control, and how do I get it back?

[chewy]

Whenever I visit certain sites, I find my cursor jumping to places where I don't want it, even when I think I have moved it to where I want it to be.

I find this very annoying - as it is something that is a cheap technical / marketing trick that SOMEONE should try to STOP.

For example, when viewing MY MSN, when I want to click on something, or type something, the cursor is seized in mid word and it ALWAYS ends up in their search box.

I don't mind all the advertising and such, but this is more than annoying - it is just wrong - and another case that... ahem, frosts my goat...

[jdMorgan]

This often happens when client-side scripting is slow to load or to execute. Many script programmers don't understand time-dependencies, and so don't code to work around such latency issues.

I see the same thing on Yahoo Mail -- I type my username, begin to type my password, and suddenly I end up typing the last part of my password into the 'username' box. This is because the JavaScript code intended to put the cursor into the 'username' box when the page loads hasn't run on time, and when it does run, it causes a nuisance instead of being a convenience.

Under some circumstances, such as using a computer in a public place, this could even constitute a security risk, since the password then appears in plain-text.

I haven't actually traced the problem, but it wouldn't surprise me if this were even a *network* dependency, where the code is hung up waiting for some server to send a Web beacon or an advert... Now that would be just plain stupid, as opposed to being a forgivable code-ordering/timing mistake...

Hopefully, these coders will never get to work at NASA or in defense, where such simple errors can kill.

Jim

[jecasc]

I had a similar problem with my notebook. But it was the touchpad. The cursor used to jump when typing for example and the edge of my hand was resting near the touchpad. So I deactivated it and used a mouse instead.

[kaled]

Just to be clear, are we talking about the mouse pointer or the text-insertion caret?

I don't think javascript can control the position of the mouse pointer but it can control the focus of controls. It can be very annoying but there's not much users can do about it.

Kaled.

[piatkow]

I currently have a webmail provider set as my home page. The focus switches to the username field but there is always a lag. If I decide that I don't want to check my emails I keep finding that half the url that I type ends up on the webmail screen.

Maybe I should go back to my original practice (done to practice my then new html skills) and create a personal home page on my PC with links to all my favorite sites.

[rj87uk]

If what jdMorgan is correct then for me Bebo is the worst offender as my username is filled in but when I click to put my password in it jumps to another field that took its time loading - very annoying.

[jdMorgan]

> Just to be clear [...]

In my post above, I'm referring to the "text insertion carat" as the cursor, and describing a delayed JavaScript 'focus' behaviour.

Mouse pointer problems would indicate a mouse/touchpad problem.

Jim

[rocknbil]

when I want to click on something, or type something, the cursor is seized in mid word and it ALWAYS ends up in their search box.

As with others, this is a symptom of Javascript Abuse [webmasterworld.com].

(I sometimes have a "bouncing mouse" but it's because I have a Wacom tablet, wireless mouse, and ball mouse all connected and one or the other gets bumped. That's a different issue.)

Banks are the absolute WORST for this, since they are always over https and tend to finish loading slowly. When the body/window completes loading, it forces focus to what **they** think you should focus on. There are several sites where you get past user name, and as you begin typing the password, it goes into plain text of the user name field. Nice.

Or, worse yet, sets the user name field to blank and THEN allows you to type the password into the user name field.

To add to it, most bank sites "lock you out" after X attempts; people who cannot realize what's going on are locked out by a technology that's supposed to enhance their experience, not create a barrier.

As a JS coder of sorts myself, I will say just because you can do a thing . . . doesn't mean you should. Javascript and Ajax abuse is the absolute worst because it makes it "very easy" to violate one of the rules of good coding: don't force the user to do anything, don't futz with their controls!

The previous rant offers no solution, so here it is: complain to the site owner. It may (will probably) die in the wind, but doing nothing doesn't help. When you get to these sites, let them know. You never know, enough people may have trouble with it to award the coder/decision maker a well deserved slap up-side the head.